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Unlike boxing, where athletes can pad their record with easy fights early on, the UFC has always been renowned for ensuring that its fighters face the toughest competition possible.
The fact that UFC fighters, particularly the very best, only ever face off with top competition has in turn meant that some true legends haven’t exactly got the best records.
For fans of boxing, seeing an MMA fighter with a record containing losses in double figures labeled as a legend might seem insane. In the world of the UFC, though, it’s often par for the course.
With that considered, here are five UFC fighters who are legends despite having mediocre records.
#5. Tito Ortiz – 15-11-1 UFC record
If you rewind back two decades to 2001, way before the likes of Conor McGregor and Georges St-Pierre rose to fame, the UFC’s biggest star was undoubtedly Tito Ortiz.
A powerful collegiate wrestler with plenty of charisma and a marketable personality, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ debuted at UFC 13. Thanks to a feud with Ken Shamrock’s Lion’s Den camp, Ortiz quickly shot to fame.
Ortiz fought for the UFC light heavyweight title in his fifth fight with the promotion. Although he came up short against Frank Shamrock, he quickly became the new champion once Shamrock vacated a few months later.
‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ then went onto defend it successfully five times, setting a record that would only be broken by Jon Jones almost a decade later. He also became the UFC’s new poster-boy once Zuffa took over the promotion in late 2000.
Ortiz eventually lost his title to Randy Couture in 2003. From there, he began to get into disputes with the UFC’s management and, in particular, UFC president Dana White.
Those disputes, along with a laundry list of injuries, meant that his fights began to get more sporadic as the years went on. By the time he really became active in the UFC again, he was past his prime. That meant the losses began to mount up.
Ortiz called time on his octagon career in 2012, at which point he’d lost six of his last seven fights. However, despite a patchy record at best, ‘The Huntington Beach Bad Boy’ remains a UFC legend. If anything, his trash-talking style paved the way for the likes of McGregor to become superstars years later.
#4. Brock Lesnar – 4-3 UFC record (1 NC)
While his time with the UFC didn’t last long at all, it’s safe to say that Brock Lesnar is well remembered as a legend of the octagon.
The former WWE champion made the move from the world of pro-wrestling into MMA in 2007. After winning one fight with K-1, he signed with the UFC ready for a debut in early 2008. Lesnar lost that debut, suffering a submission loss to Frank Mir, but his star power meant that he quickly became a huge attraction for the UFC. After a win over Heath Herring, the promotion decided to strike while the iron was hot.
They gave Lesnar a shot at UFC heavyweight champion Randy Couture in just his third fight in the octagon. ‘The Beast Incarnate’ came through, knocking out the long-time champion to become the new titleholder.
Despite suffering from diverticulitis, which kept him on the shelf for lengthy periods of time during his title reign, Lesnar was still able to make two successful title defenses against Frank Mir and Shane Carwin. That gave him a UFC record that stood until it was broken by Stipe Miocic in 2018.
Lesnar lost his title to Cain Velasquez in late 2010 and fought just once more in the octagon, suffering another loss, this time to Alistair Overeem. He then retired in late 2011. By that point, though, he’d headlined some of the best-selling pay-per-views in UFC history, cementing him as a legend.
While a positive drug test tainted his 2016 return victory over Mark Hunt, ‘The Beast Incarnate’ remains well-remembered as one of the biggest stars in UFC history despite a mediocre record.
#3. Vitor Belfort – 15-10 UFC record (1 NC)
While Vitor Belfort only managed to win one title during his UFC career, which came due to a fluke injury suffered by Randy Couture, ‘The Phenom’ remains widely recognized as a genuine UFC legend despite his spotty record.
Belfort first debuted in the octagon back in the promotion’s infancy at UFC 12, where he quickly knocked out two opponents to win the show’s heavyweight tournament. He followed that up with an equally violent win over Tank Abbott just three months later. A loss to Randy Couture at UFC 15 shattered his invincible aura, but Belfort still picked up a further two wins before leaving the promotion for Pride for a period.
‘The Phenom’ returned four years later and won the UFC light heavyweight title in a rematch with Couture after ‘The Natural’ suffered an unfortunate eye injury. It wasn’t the best way for Belfort to claim UFC gold, but it still wrote his name into UFC history.
However, Belfort’s title reign didn’t last long. He dropped it back to Couture in a rematch. He then left the UFC again before returning four years later for a third stint with the promotion.
This one was arguably his most successful. He won eight fights and made an unsuccessful challenge for the middleweight title. However, he also lost another six bouts, taking his overall UFC record to 15-10.
Despite that, Belfort remains known as a UFC legend and it’s easy to see why. Just one of his 15 wins came by decision, making him the third-most prolific finisher in the UFC. For the most part, he only ever faced tough competition, too, making him the perfect example of a UFC icon with a mediocre record.
#2. Randy Couture – 16-8 UFC record
Although he’s now persona non grata with the UFC thanks to a number of clashes with the promotion’s management, it’s safe to say that Randy Couture remains a genuine legend of the octagon.
‘The Natural’ has a number of UFC records to his name. He was the first ever UFC fighter to win titles in two different weight classes. He captured the UFC light heavyweight title in 2003 to go with the UFC heavyweight title he won some years prior.
Across his 14-year tenure with the promotion, he fought in a record 16 UFC title fights, has the most wins in UFC heavyweight title bouts (six) and the most title reigns in UFC history too (six). He also remains the only fighter over the age of 40 to win a UFC championship fight.
However, it’s probably safe to say that Couture’s record of 16-8 is mediocre at best. On the face of it, without understanding his accomplishments, it’d probably be easy to brush ‘The Natural’ off as a fighter who doesn’t belong in the same conversation as the likes of Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva.
The truth, though, is that Couture never fought anything but a top-level opponent during his time in the UFC. In fact, of his 24 fights in the promotion, more than half came against a reigning, future or previous UFC champion.
Simply put, ‘The Natural’ will always be seen as a UFC legend despite holding a pretty average record.
#1. B.J. Penn – 12-13-2 UFC record
It’s hard to dispute the idea that the UFC legend with the most mediocre record is former UFC lightweight and welterweight champion B.J. Penn. In fact, there’s probably an argument that Penn’s record isn’t just mediocre, it’s downright bad.
Back in 2009, though, during his reign as UFC lightweight champion, when he looked practically invincible, the idea that ‘The Prodigy’ would end his tenure with the promotion with a losing record would’ve been absolutely laughable. At that point, Penn was destroying every fighter the UFC put in front of him, from Sean Sherk and Joe Stevenson to Kenny Florian and Diego Sanchez.
At the time, all four men were looked upon as being amongst the best 155lbers in the world and Penn made defeating them look easy. At his best, ‘The Prodigy’ had a venomous ground game, near-impenetrable takedown defense and one of the best boxing games in MMA.
So what caused him to end his UFC career with such a terrible record? Simply put, ‘The Prodigy’ stuck around for far too long. For some reason, the UFC allowed it to happen.
Had Penn stayed away from the octagon when he first announced his retirement after his loss to Nick Diaz in 2011, his record would’ve stood at a much more respectable 12-7-2, with six of those losses coming to UFC champions. However, Penn’s ill-advised comebacks in 2012, 2014 and from 2017 to 2019, meant that he ended his career with a string of seven losses in a row.
Regardless of thar, though, ‘The Prodigy’ remains a UFC legend, largely because in his prime, he remains perhaps the most talented 155lber to ever set foot inside the octagon, record be damned.
